GREAT SNIPE. 303 



much more recently Mr. T. W. Cremer, of Beeston, near 

 Cromer, killed five in one day out of a turnip field 

 in that neighbourhood, which he describes as rising 

 slowly , like woodcocks in the open, and spreading their 

 tails.* Between the 6th and 19th of September, 1856, a 

 bird-stuffer, at Norwich, received five specimens from the 

 vicinity of Hickling and Horning, two of which were 

 killed at one shot on a barley layer ; and in September, 

 1862, a more lhan usual number were shot in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Yarmouth, but it is somewhat remarkable 

 that in the autumn of 1868, when, as shown by the 

 various records in the "Zoologist" (pp. 1422, 1460, 

 and 1461) and other journals, these birds were extra- 

 ordinarily abundant in the south of England, f I could 

 not ascertain that more than two, or three examples 

 at most, had been killed in this county. 



This species is at once distinguishable from the 

 common snipe, by the under parts of the plumage 

 being barred throughout, the lower parts of the body 

 in Scolopax gallinago being pure white. Besides this 

 marked difference, however, the legs are somewhat 

 stouter in the great snipe, and the beak shorter in 

 proportion to the size of the bird, whilst the number 

 of the tail feathers is sixteen^ instead of fourteen as 

 in the common snipe ; but I cannot quite agree with 

 some authors that the eyes are proportionately higher 

 in the head. The whole bulk of the bird, comparing 



* By some authors this bird is described as uttering no sound 

 on rising, but Selby remarks that "when flushed" the great snipe 

 generally utters a cry in some degree similar to that of the common 

 species, but shorter and hoarser. 



f Selby speaks of their being unusually plentiful in the year 

 1826, which, like 1868, was a very dry and warm season. 



t Mr. E. H. Eodd recorded in the "Zoologist" for 1868 (p. 

 1482) a specimen of this bird, killed at Camelford, Cornwall, with 

 several others, which had eighteen instead of sixteen tail feathers. 



